Which is which?

I have been thinking about old ideas and new ideas.

Some cling like habits. Others arrive suddenly. Which ones, I wonder, have I mistaken for truth?

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I drive the first post into the earth. The line in my head is straight and clean.

The ground resists. A stone. A root.

An idea whispers: force it. Bend the land to my plan.

Soon the line is jagged.

The wire resists. A loose knot. A swinging bow where there should tight line.

A new idea hums beneath the soil, through the wires. The fence finds a new path, following something deeper.

Is this what it means to let go? To let the fence be not as it should be, but as it wishes?

Lord, show me where to plant the next post.

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Is this “new” idea, that came suddenly, truly new? Or is it the oldest one, woven into the world before I ever arrived and thought to build?

Control and dominance was the real invention. Recent, ominous. It came, imposed on the world.

Let me recognize the old wisdom in the new idea, and the new dangers in the what appears old.

Yielding is ancient.

– from the mountain

Consider:

Can I pause to see what to discard, and what to keep?

Reading:

“I am no longer my own, but thine.” — John Wesley

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“I have held many things in my hands, and I have lost them all; but whatever I have placed in God’s hands, that I still possess.” — Martin Luther

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“Many are the plans in a man’s heart; but it is the Lord’s purpose that prevails.” — Proverbs 19:21

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Who grows the crops?

I cast aside old ideas, but with what did I replace them?

I look out upon the field and see all that must go right. The fence must hold, the rains must come, the crops must thrive. The harvest — is it my doing that it be bountiful?

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I do not do the growing.

I believe so much depends on my own industry, when it is you, Lord, who moves the world and arranges its parts. Am I responsible for the sunshine?

Let me depend more fully on you, Lord, in all things. Let me uncenter myself. Renew my mind, that I may understand grateful dependence.

– from the mountain

Consider:

Can I see and accept my true role?

Reading:

“The creation of a thousand forests is in one acorn.”

— Ralph Waldo Emerson

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“I am a hole in a flute that the Christ’s breath moves through. Listen to this music.”

— Hafiz

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“So then neither is he that planteth any thing, neither he that watereth; but God that giveth the increase.”

— 1 Corinthians 3:7 (KJV)

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God all around.

Where are you, Lord? I search and I search.

In the woods? On the mountain? Are you the ocean?

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You, the motive force and soothing balm, that I seek without cease — could it be that you visit in the most unexpected ways?

Are you my fellows, yea, even my enemies? The words they speak and things they do, are they messages?

Let me be then grateful for the society around me.

– from the mountain

Consider:

How can I better see God in all people?

Reading:

“If you do not find God in the next person you meet, it is a waste of time looking for him further.” — Mahatma Gandhi

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“God comes to us disguised as our life.” — Paula D’Arcy

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“Be not forgetful to entertain strangers: for thereby some have entertained angels unawares.” — Hebrews 13:2 (KJV)

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I have unexplored strength.

Bit by bit have I noticed task upon task, worry upon worry. I face a day filled with obligations piled high.

The bridge does not fear the vehicles it carries day after day. Each new traveler is negligible.

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Can I see my day with a correct view? The tasks, the duties — each one simple. Presented in a pile, they seem insurmountable.

Even seen together, they are no more than a steady stream of doings. If I am the bridge, then, let me not fear my own labor.

Let me see rightly, Lord.

– from the mountain

Consider:

Can I see how powerful you have made me?

Reading:

“The best way out is always through.”

— Robert Frost

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“You are not a drop in the ocean. You are the entire ocean in a drop.”

— Jalal al-Din Muhammad Balkhi

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“Come unto me, all ye that labour and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest.”

— Matthew 11:28 (KJV)

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